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State University, whose academic programs are funded by electric
utilities, telling one to forget about wind power. Smiley fought
Michigan State University for five years to get them to stop
discouraging wind power as an energy-generating option. In
recent years they have been supportive.
Figure 25.12
V44 600 Vestas wind turbine at Traverse City. The owner
and power purchaser Light & Power ofers “Green Rates” for
residential and business customers who purchase electricity
generated from the wind turbine. The windmill is one of the
largest wind turbine generators in Michigan, and produces
around 800 000 kWh of clean energy every year (NREL/
Traverse City Light & Power, Photo by Don Rutt).
Working as a wind power consultant with Traverse City Light
& Power (TCL&P) Steve Smiley developed the “Green Rate Wind
Project,” the first North American demonstration of a wind power
green pricing program whereby the utility customers volunteered
to pay a small premium for accounting for all of their electric
consumption with wind power. The 1996 project consisted of the
largest commercial wind turbine installed in North America at that
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